Megadeth to Provide Five ‘Dystopia’ Songs With Virtual Reality Experience

Megadeth recently revealed an animated music video for "The Threat Is Real" that showed the band being held captive in a fallen city as part of a dystopian world. Now they're ready to take things a step further with a rather unique promotional tool. The band is teaming with director Blair Underwood to create special virtual reality videos for five songs off the upcoming Dystopia album.

The tracks getting the special treatment are "Fatal Illusion," "Dystopia," "The Threat Is Real," "Poisonous Shadows" and "Post American World." Underwood, who currently appears as a recurring character on ABC's Marvel's Agents of Shield, stepped behind the camera for 2009's The Bridge to Nowhere and has built his directing resume taking on several music videos, short films and commercials before the Megadeth project.

The band has also teamed with Next Galaxy Corp. to create the dystopian universe surrounding the band, allowing fans to virtually enter, engage and explore this parallel world. On Jan. 22, fans will be able to purchase the Dystopia album, including a CEEK Virtual Reality cardbox headset with instructions and a download code to access and unlock the exclusive content. That will allow you then to participate in the virtual reality experience. The CD package will be available via all online and traditional retailers.

During our recent chat with Dave Mustaine, he told us, "I'm really excited about this. I don't know anybody else who has done virtual reality performances in metal." The frontman hinted that he drew some inspiration from films like Planet of the Apes and 12 Monkeys, while envisioning a world that's gone to hell in a hand basket.

He adds, "I thought it would be really cool to show this, where you don't have a particular antagonist. You don't have somebody to just be the bad guy because he's just a bad guy, but somebody who could be so innocuous that he could be anything. He could be an arms dealer. He could be a human trafficker. He's the bad guy. And Vic [Rattlehead] and this person, he's the person who is gonna be the cyborg who is on the cover [of the album] with the metal mohawk. That's Vic's sidekick who ends up fighting through the videos."

So there you have it Megadeth fans! Not only does the band have one of early 2016's most anticipated albums, but now there's something really cool in the form of the virtual reality world created over the five songs on top of what you're getting musically. Dystopia is currently available for pre-order with merch bundles here, while digital pre-orders are available here. And just a reminder, Megadeth will be hitting the road in early 2016. See their dates at this location.

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